The Uttar Pradesh government has reconstituted the Special Investigation Team probing the alleged embezzlement of donations made to the Ram temple in Ayodhya, inducting three senior Indian Police Service officers into the panel, ANI reported.

This came after the Supreme Court, on July 13, directed the Uttar Pradesh government to constitute a fresh SIT under the leadership of a senior Indian Police Service officer. The bench, headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant, also directed the state to submit a status report on July 27.

The new SIT is headed by Inspector General Kiran S, with Deputy Inspector General Somen Verma and Senior Superintendent of Police Gaurav Grover as members. It replaces the earlier panel headed by Lucknow Divisional Commissioner Vijay Vishwas Pant, an Indian Administrative Service officer. Kiran S was also a member of the previous SIT, the Hindustan Times reported.

On July 20, the court asked the state government to consider placing the ongoing police investigation under the supervision of the same three-member SIT that had first uncovered prima facie evidence of the alleged fraud, the newspaper reported.

The original three-member SIT was formed on June 13 at the request of the temple trust after Opposition leaders and a whistleblower raised questions about how donations were being handled at the temple.

In its preliminary report, submitted to the Uttar Pradesh home department on June 23, the SIT found 70 instances of counting staff hiding bundles of notes and loose cash in their clothes, pockets and shoes. Scroll has seen a copy of the report.

The report alleged that offerings were stolen during the counting process with staff routinely hiding cash on their bodies and walking out with it, as systems meant to stop this were not enforced. It also flagged serious lapses by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust and the State Bank of India, the banker to the trust.

The report held trustee Anil Mishra, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader, responsible for the dilution of security protocols in the counting room but did not recommend any action against him.

While it did not name Champat Rai, the trust’s general secretary, one of his aides was among the eight staffers it recommended the police investigate. The eight persons were also named in a first information report registered on June 25.

Mishra and Rai have resigned from their positions in the trust.

Edited by Anamika Pathak.

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